NEWS AND EVENTS

The Belmont Mansion’s Link to the American Revolution

Philadelphia, PA (October 23, 2012)—The American Women’s Heritage Society
(AWHS)/Historic Belmont Mansion and Underground Railroad Museum is excited to announce the Mansion’s connection to the American Revolution! AWHS has partnered with the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail (W3R-NHT) in Pennsylvania, the National Park Service, and the Fairmount Park Council for Historic Sites in hosting a banner dedication at Historic Belmont Mansion and Underground Railroad Museum to commemorate the Mansion’s historical connection to W3R-NHT—the route traveled by the Revolutionary Army during the American War for Independence. Judge Richard Peters, owner of the Belmont Mansion, often entertained his good friend, the Marquis de Lafayette, at his home in what was, then, Philadelphia’s countryside. The banner dedication was followed by a presentation titled "Lafayette and the Farewell Tour: Philadelphia and Judge Peters Greet an Old Friend," by Alan Hoffman, President of American Friends of Lafayette and W3R Boston, and translator of Levasseur’s Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825: Journal of a Voyage to the United States. Hoffman explored the relationship between the Marquis de Lafayette (famed ally of George Washington and the Revolutionary Army) and Judge Richard Peters, abolitionist, Secretary of the Board of War during the American Revolution, and the owner of Belmont Mansion (formerly the Peters Estate).

The Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route is a 700-mile National Historic Trail, so designated by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in March, 2009. The W3R-NHT stretches from Newport, RI, to Yorktown, VA.

For more information, contact Audrey R. Johnson-Thornton (bthorn1653@aol.com), or Karima Bouchenafa (awhsbelmontmansion@gmail.com), or call (215) 878-8844. Learn more at www.belmontmansion.org, www.w3r-us.org, www.nps.gov/waro.